Catalyst for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia, method for preparing same, and method for regenerating same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12344943-B2
Application number	US-202117342545-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2021
Priority date	Aug 6, 2020
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a catalyst for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia, which includes a metal sulfide, a method for preparing the same and a method for regenerating the same.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for regenerating a catalyst for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia, the method comprising:
producing ammonia by electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR) in the presence of a catalyst, wherein the catalyst is a composite catalyst comprising a copper-sulfur compound and nitrogen-doped carbon; and
regenerating the catalyst by electrochemical reaction in an aqueous solution comprising Na 2 S to provide a regenerated catalyst, wherein the regenerating the catalyst is performed at a potential of 0.05-0.5 V RHE for 30 minutes to 5 hours;
wherein the producing of ammonia results in cleavage of a Cu—S bond of the copper-sulfur compound, and the cleaved Cu—S bond is restored by the regenerating the catalyst.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising producing ammonia using the regenerated catalyst.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the regenerated catalyst including the copper-sulfur compound is represented by the chemical formula Cu x S y , wherein x is 1.7-1.8 and y is 1.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the composite catalyst has a mesoporosity that is greater than Cu 9 S 5 over a pore size range of 2 nm to 8 nm as determined by Barrett-Joyner-Halenda plots.

5. The method for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia according to claim 1 that is greater than Cu 9 S 5 over a pore size range of 2 nm to 8 nm as determined by Barrett-Joyner-Halenda plots.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the composite catalyst has a specific surface area (SSA) of 5-20 m 2 g −1 .

Assignees

• Korea Inst Sci & Tech

Inventors

• Park Hyun S
• Yoo Sung Jong
• Jang Jong Hyun
• Park Hee-Young
• Seo Bora
• Kim Jin Young
• Kim Hyoung-Juhn
• Lee So Young
• Choi Jihyun
• Kong Jimin
• Kim Hee Soo
• Yi Gyu Seong

Classifications

• C25B1/27

  Ammonia · CPC title

• C25B11/055

  characterised by the substrate or carrier material · CPC title

• C25B11/075

  consisting of a single catalytic element or catalytic compound · CPC title

• B01J35/633

  less than 0.5 ml/g · CPC title

• B01J35/61

  Surface area · CPC title